Colossus Fireheart ruffled his Dracoth's ears as he marched to battle. The Lord-Arcanum was having serious misgivings about the mission. They had been sent by the Celestant Prime himself to attack à Fortress of Death in Shyish. If they could take this fortress it would grant High Azyr à chance to attack Nagash and his army from the inside out.
Colossus gave à start as his lieutenant, Adrinus Wolfcast, cried out in warning. Colossus could barely make out the dim forms of the enemy on the horizon, charging towards them.
"Take cover!" he cried rushing to the dead trees on the side of the road. He watched hopelessly as several Sequitors were taken out by with spells. One of his Pallador Primes, Merellos Thundermane, dragged a limp body over to the Lord-Veritant, Adrinus Wolfcast. The man screamed as Adrinus healed him.
"Merellos, take a few units of Evocators and flank through the trees. Valerus, take one or two units of Vanguard-Hunters and flank through the grasses. I'll take everyone else and charge straight up the middle as a distraction. Understood?" Colossus ordered. The Pallador Prime and the Lord-Aquilor nodded and set off. Colossus sighed as he readied his men. This was going to be a costly assault. He pulled Adrinus aside and told him to wait on the sidelines with a few Palladors and to help the wounded, as he was certain there would be many. With that, he began the assault.
Within seconds Colossus realized he had made a mistake. There was not enough men on the ridge for a flanking maneuver like the one he had just sent in. The flankers would quickly kill the few men on the ridge and then they would get assailed with spells and most likely an ambush. The enemy had placed just enough men on the ridge to make it look like a large force. His flankers would be crushed and leave the rest of the battalion in an even worse position than before. He had been outmaneuvered! Colossus quickly recovered and sent several Palladors out to tell the flankers of hs realization. The Palladors set off but were shrivelled or zapped by spells before they could get very far. Colossus ground his teeth in frustration before coming to a conclusion. The enemy hadn't sent a single arrow yet! That meant that there was only a whole lot of wizards in there, but even wizards got tired. Colossus quickly called a retreat and had a his Knight-Incantor, Tarora Fyrefast, come to him.
"I need you to gather some spellcasters and try to destroy their wizards on the wall. This mission is crucial to our victory," he told her. She immediately set off to find some help. Colossus was trying to figure out his next move in his command tent when a lone Evocator stumbled in, his armor scarred and pitted.
"Good Heavens, what happened here?" he asked, standing up.
"Sir, I was one of Merellos's flanking troops. We reached the ridge and destroyed the men there. As soon as the last man was dead, we were ambushed. I was the only survivor," he responded.
"What's your name, soldier?"
"Balthaeus Goldenlight, sir."
"Well Bathaeus, you should go get some rest."
"Thank you sir."
Colossus sighed as he thought about this update. Two of his most able commanders were evidently dead, leaving him with less room for failure. Even though he had known that this would happen, he had maintained the hope that they would be able to pull through. Now he had to wait for them to get through the pain of the Anvil of the Apotheosis before they could rejoin him. Time he did not have.
The only option was to charge up and hope for the best. Maybe he could outsmart whoever was commanding the defence by doing the unexpected. If it turned out to be a suicide run, then so be it. Sigmar could send in someone else to conquer this impossible problem. But then, maybe Tarora could take out their wizards. Then he'd be in business.
Colossus ordered his battalion into three groups. One led by him, one led by Adrinus and the last led by Loraia Glorystorm, a strong Knight-Zephyros. Tarora would stay back with their wizards and distract the enemy's spellcasters. Colossus led his men straight up the middle with Adrinus's through the woods and Loraia's through the grass. Colossus took the lead of his men. They needed to see him braving the same dangers they faced.
A rogue spell bolt narrowly missed Colossus, striking a Vanguard-Hunter behind him. He grimaced. This was going to be a long fight. His group managed to make it to the spot where the flanking units had been ambushed relatively intact. With the combined force of all of the Silver Shields, they took out the ambushers without difficulty. Colossus had just reached the gate and was about to call in a battering ram when the wall exploded. Colossus didn't even have time to scream before the world went black.
Adrinus Wolfcast ordered his men back to the cover of their rough camp. He stared at the giant gap in the wall in despair as he thought of Colossus. This army was going to fall apart without his leadership.
Loraia Glorystorm dove into a ditch by the wall. Her men were getting slaughtered, the last of them huddled in the trenches around the fortress. She had no idea where the wizards who were supposed to be distracting the enemy were, but wherever they were, they were not doing a very good job of it.
Tarora Fyrefast watched with despair as her wizards' spells were unbound, every single one. She didn't know how he did it, but she knew that it had to be Arkhan the Black. He was the only one with that type of power. She knew that this mission was doomed to failure. And without Colossus's leadership, she did not know who would save them.
Merellos Thundermane sighed as he drifted through the abyss before High Azyr. He was waiting to be reforged and to rejoin the battle. He hoped that Colossus realized what had happened and avoided the trap that he had fallen into. For if he did, his mission was doomed.
Valerus Sternheart screamed again as he was reforged. All he could think about was how he had been ambushed and how stupid he had been to fall into that trap. He only hoped Colossus did not make the same mistake.
Adrinus stared at Loraia as she ran back to the camp, dodging spells every which way. He knew that Loraia would have something to say about the spellcaster's failure, and didn't know what to do to stop her. Frankly, he kind of agreed with her. The army had been slaughtered the moment they got in range of Arkhan's spellcasters. Adrinus didn't wait for Loraia to arrive before setting off to find Tarora.
To his surprise, he found her sitting in her tent sobbing. Before he had the chance to ask her what was wrong, Loraia burst into the tent.
"What happened out there? My men were slaughtered out there. We had no cover fire save our arrows and that wasn't enough. We had no support," she yelled, venting her anger onto Tarora. She turned her red-rimmed eyes on Loraia.
"We tried but all of our spells were unbound. We could not assist your armies and distract Arkhan the Black at the same time," She said.
"Tarora, we understand your problem but we needed that support. We are not going to make it through this war without support from everyone," Adrinus said calmly.
"I know Adrinus, it's just-" she was suddenly cut off by the arrival of Bathaeus Goldenlight.
"Sir, a small troop of about two units are approaching on the horizon. I was sent here to get you," he said, out of breath from his run.
"Well, let's not keep them waiting," said Loraia, grinning as she sat up. Adrinus sighed. Loraia's mood changes could be quite ridiculous. The four soldiers arrived at the edge of the camp to find an imperious-looking Hell Knight sitting astride a Skeletal-Steed, followed by nine other Black Knights. Hurrying to catch up with the knights was an 30 strong unit of Skeleton Warriors, led by a scruffy looking Skeleton Champion.
As the commanders approached the camp, the Hell Knight's Hornblower called out, "Hail to the Hell Knight Knadrak the Cursed! Bow to-"
The Hornblower was cut off by the Skeleton Champion.
"Yeah yeah yeah. We've all heard enough about 'Knadrak'. It's time to get down to business. My Hornblower will now make an announcement," he interrupted.
The skeleton Hornblower cleared his throat loudly as the troop reached the camp.
"Behold the sight of Kemrik the Pale, Champion of Skeletons. He has come with the demand of a retreat-"
"No! We have come with the demand of a retreat. Not him. We," interjected Knadrak.
Loraia snickered. "Kemrik the Pale. That's a good one."
Adrinus nudged her wth his elbow and told her to shut up.
"As my noble Hornblower was saying, I have come with a-" Kemrik was cut off with a sharp kick from Knadrak that sent him flying into the dirt.
"At any rate, the merciful Arkhan the Black demands that you surrender immediately. I highly suggest following that course of action," Knadrak said.
"Well, I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that I decline," Adrinus said. The other commanders nodded in agreement. Knadrak sniffed haughtily and turned to leave, his entourage hurrying to catch up. Kemrik marched out in a stately way, his men following behind.
"Castigators, open fire," Loraia said, unleashing a volley of arrows. Loraia laughed as the skeletons were forced to make an ungainly retreat, scowling back at her.
I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I found this in my drive, it's old and it's been on hiatus for a while now. I only posted this because I had it, I don't plan on continuing it anyway. If enough of you guys want though, I suppose I could continue. I would like it if you left a review, it would mean a lot and I would love some advice.